Safety in Numbers
by TheDoctorAndSarah
Summary: Taking over the TARDIS was the easy part.  Keeping control is something else. 10/Sarah Jane, SimmMaster, AU **** NOW COMPLETE ****
1. Chapter 1

**URGENT NOTE:** As you may know, the BBC starts shooting the 50th anniversary special this week. If you'd like to see a proper tribute to Sarah Jane in the special, please consider signing the petition at www dot ipetitions dot com / petition/sarah-jane-smith-dr-who-tribute (automatic link removed because we don't want to break any rules) and passing it on to any groups you belong to. If we all pass it on, we can make a difference! Time (ironically) is of the essence! Thanks!

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Several weeks, four truckloads, and one lightning strike later, we are finally finished moving, so it's back to posting! We actually wrote this one before we started, but we were just too tired to finish it, so now that we've rested up a bit, here it is.

For those of you who have just joined us, in "Unfinished Business" Sarah Jane became a Time Lord, in "Family of Choice" she and the Tenth Doctor got married, and in "A Lot To Give Thanks For" she gave birth. (Yes, yes, we know, Time Lords are sterile. Explanation is in the previous stories.) Now it's time to see what happens when the pitter patter of little feet can be heard in the TARDIS.

It occurs to us that we do a lot of fic with small children. Sorry about that, we've got six (not all at home) so sometimes we tend to think along those lines! Don't worry, we have several stories coming up, and most of them are not kid-centric.

Um ... except for that sequel to "Little Girl, Big Magic" we have in the works.

Enjoy.

* * *

The first thought Sarah Jane had as she opened the door to her son's bedroom was how normal it was. Posters of superheroes, space ships, and dinosaurs festooned the walls, like they would in any four-year-old's room, in any house, in any city on Earth. But this four-year-old, like his father and his mother, was a Time Lord, and the bedroom was not on Earth, but in the TARDIS.

"I'm sorry, dear, but you'll have to stop playing now. It's time for your nap," she said, looking around for him.

A moment later, she found out where he was when he leapt off the laundry bag hanging on the back of the door with a cry of "Kazoom!" and latched onto her shoulders, towel tied around his neck as a cape. "Did you think you'd get away?"

"Oh no!" cried Sarah Jane with mock horror. "Wonder Man is about to defeat me! Where's my partner, Captain Evil?"

"I have vanquished Captain Evil," he said, dropping to the floor and standing in front of her with his hands on his hips, chin thrust upward. "So his mind control can't make you evil anymore, Mummy."

"Mummy? Mummy? That's right! I'm your Mummy, and you have saved me, Wonder Man." She swept him up in her arms and hugged him. "My hero," she said as she kissed him on his cheek.

"Eeew, Mummy, you can't kiss Wonder Man!" Then he looked up at her, and snuggled into her shoulder. "Well, maybe a little."

Suddenly, a tall boy whipped into the room and smiled wickedly at both of them. "Aha, Wonder Man, I'm back," said DR. "You should have realized that you couldn't keep me locked in the saferoom forever. That door opens from the inside too."

"DR, have you boys been playing in the saferoom again?" scolded Sarah. "I thought your father told you to stay away from it. It's only for emergencies."

"But Mummy," David said, "it **was **an emergency. Captain Evil was controlling your mind. Now I have to vanquish him again!" He started wriggling to get out of her arms.

Sarah Jane kept a good grip on the small boy. "I'm afraid that will have to keep until later, Davy. Because right now, it's nap time and even Wonder Man needs to sleep." She slipped the towel off of his neck and hung it on the side of his bed. "Did you brush your teeth yet, my darling?"

"I'm not Davy, I'm Wonder Man! How come DR gets to stay up?" he pouted.

"Because I'm evil," laughed DR. "Good guys have to take naps."

"Don't taunt your brother, DR," said Sarah Jane as she leaned over and tucked David in. "It's only because he's older, Davy. When you're fourteen, you won't have to nap either."

"What's this about taunting people?" the Doctor said, sticking his head into the room.

"DR said good guys have to take naps," David said, crossing his arms petulantly.

"Oh did he?" the Doctor said. He winked knowingly at Sarah Jane, who in turn, nodded silently at him. "Well, that may or may not be true, but do you know what else good guys get to do?"

He shook his head.

"They get to fly," the Doctor said, his eyes wide. He took David's 'cape' off the side of the bed and hung it over his neck, then held his arms out. "Sure you don't mind?" he asked Sarah.

Sarah beamed at 'her boys'. "Not at all," she doted.

"Thank you," the Doctor said officiously. He lifted David up until he was over the Doctor's head, then started running through the halls, David holding his arms out in front of him, his cape flying behind him, yelling "Kazoom!"

DR and Sarah watched them go. "Dad's going to spoil him," DR said.

Sarah looked over at her eldest son. He was so much like his father. From his shock of brown hair down to his Chucks, you could tell in a glance who his Dad was, even if at the moment, he was going through a gangly awkward phase in his growth. He was already taller than she was and far too sure of himself. Quite the typical teenage boy, thinking he was a gift to the universe. Sarah reached up and rubbed his shoulder affectionately. "When you were that age DR, you decided that you wanted to fly the TARDIS, and you pushed a button that landed us in a tar pit in the stone age, dinosaurs and all," she laughed at the memory. "The TARDIS got good and stuck in. As I recall, a T-Rex tried to make a snack out of her, and we barely escaped with our lives."

"Sure," DR said, "but we got some great dinosaur teeth as souvenirs," he said, pointing to the large calcified teeth decorating David's T-Rex poster.

Sarah chuckled at him. "You didn't see the look on your father's face when he pulled those teeth out of the TARDIS door. You were our first, and I think we may have fussed over you a bit more than we should have. But then, we cut our teeth on parenting while you kept us up cutting your baby teeth." She reached up and mussed his hair playfully. "We indulged you quite a bit while you were growing up, and you've turned out fine so far. Come on, let's go and get some cookies from the kitchen, shall we? I'll tell you about the time you hid from us and wouldn't come out for a whole day," she said, laughing at the memory.

Meanwhile, the Doctor reached the open front door and plowed through it onto the red lawn, where their four remaining children were playing a game of Tripodian Football, keeping the almost-lighter-than-air ball in the air using anything but their feet.

"More, Daddy, more," David called.

"Alright, but just one more flight, then back to your bed and nap time," the Doctor said. He 'flew' David back to bed and, hanging his cape on the bedpost, he tucked him in. He tried not to play favorites, of course, but David was even more a character than his older siblings had been at his age. "Good night, Davy," he said, giving him a kiss on the forehead.

"Good night, Daddy," David said, snuggling into the blankets.

The Doctor went back out onto the porch and joined Sarah, leaning back up against her.

They weren't really outside, of course. This was the "Gallifrey room", the room he'd built to look like his home world, where he and Sarah had bonded 16 years prior. Somewhere between their second and third child, the TARDIS had suddenly grown this space to twice its size; they'd taken the hint, and the Doctor had built the house for Sarah, who wanted as much of a normal life for their children as possible, adding extra rooms with the assumption that Colin, now ten, wouldn't be the last. Now the Doctor watched his children play and mused at how lucky they were.

Oh, they were Time Lords, their children, but they weren't your typical Time Lords. He and Sarah had gone out of their way to keep them out of danger as much as possible, but of course with their lifestyle, that had met with a limited amount of success. Still, they'd been lucky; tragedy hadn't touched them in all that time, and while the children knew what to do in case of an emergency, they were happy children with the universe at their disposal. The contrast between that and his own childhood, regimented by the Academy and haunted by the vision of what he'd seen in the Untempered Schism at the age of eight, was striking, and as Sarah started to rub his shoulders, he just smiled contentedly.

Sarah Jane smiled warmly and kissed the top of his head. "DR's in his room working on his interoceter. Cookie dear? I saved you a few."

"Thanks, darling," he said, staring out at the children. "Maybe later. Right now I'm just enjoying the rest of our anniversary. Hard to believe it's been sixteen years."

Sarah sighed contentedly. "Yes, it seems like we just got married. Here we are sixteen years later, and with six children," she laughed softly. "And there I was, bemoaning the fact that we couldn't have children. You know, I remember exactly how I felt when I found out we were having DR. What a time that was."

"I think that was the last time we were alone," he laughed.

Sarah rubbed his shoulders. "First DR, then Victoria, followed by Colin, Thomas, Elisabeth, and finally David." She sighed again, then laughed softly as she shook her head. "When you told me that you were were the last Gallifreyan, I had no idea that we would end up repopulating the planet in the TARDIS."

He laughed with her. "I had no idea you'd like having babies so much. I think you just like hiding out in the vortex for a year or two after each one is born while we wait for them to get old enough for us to breathe."

"Oh drat, you figured out my evil plan," she laughed. "You know, Davy's four years old, that means we're overdue for the next," she said, playing with his hair.

"I thought you were just catching your breath," he said, turning to face her and giving her a look that was somewhere between seductive and mischievous.

She wrapped her arms around him. "What would you say if I offered you a night in the zero room as part of your anniversary gift after the children go to bed?"

He smiled. "I'd say that -"

"Mummy, Colin's not playing nice!" Elisabeth came running up to them before he could complete that thought. At six, she was a little short for her age, but otherwise a perfect cross between her two parents, and always eager to complain when something wasn't fair. "He's not letting me and Tommy get the ball."

And the subject of her complaints was right behind her, his brown curly hair flopping on his head. Ten year old Colin held the ball in his hand, and was ready to defend himself. "I am too playing nice, it's just that she's too short to reach. The rules say that we can hit the ball with anything but our feet. It's not our fault that Lissie and Tommy are too short."

"I'm not short!" eight year old Thomas called out from where they'd been playing.

"And he called Tori a 'cootie face'," Elisabeth continued.

"Well, she **was** being a cootie face," Colin insisted.

"Was not," said Tori as she came up behind Colin, her red hair ringlets bouncing as she ran. "Dad, Colin got upset because I told him he had to wait his turn to ride the scooter."

Colin glared at her. "You were taking too long."

"Want to take this one," Sarah asked the Doctor.

"Not really," the Doctor said, "but I will." He turned to his son, and motioned for him to come over and sit down on his knee. "Colin, we've talked about this before. You have to wait your turn, even if you think it's taking too long. And quite frankly, how do you expect people to share with you, when you won't share with other people?" He looked at Colin, waiting for an answer.

"Yes, I know, but she was taking too long on purpose," Colin pouted. "She took so long it was almost two turns."

"Maybe we should put a timer on the scooter, dear," suggested Sarah.

"Don't be ridiculous," the Doctor said. "These children are Time Lords, they know how long something takes. Tori, did you take extra time on the scooter?"

Tori put her head down contritely. "Maybe just a little. I'm sorry Colin."

The Doctor turned to Sarah. "Want to take this one?"

"Not really," she smiled, "but I will." She looked over at the four faces standing there waiting for a fair judgment. "And, I'm beginning to have second thoughts about tonight," Sarah said as she turned to Tori. "I think that you should skip your turn next time and give it to Colin. Colin," she said, turning to him. "Name calling is not acceptable. You need to apologize to Tori. As for the rest of you, tattling isn't very nice either."

Four faces looked at her contritely.

"Yes, Mummy," said Tori.

"Sorry, Mummy," said Lissie.

"I love you, Mummy," said Tommy.

"Does this mean we can still have desert, Mummy?" asked Colin hopefully.

"It does, **if** you apologize and promise to play nice in the future," Sarah said. "Now say you're sorry to each other and the lot of you scoot, before I change my mind." Sarah smiled at them.

They did, and a moment later, they were once again playing, as though nothing had happened.

The Doctor turned back to Sarah. "Have I told you lately what an awesome mummy you are?"

"Thank you, and I think that you are a wonderful daddy. Now then, about tonight," she said with a twinkle in her eye. "Feel up to taking a chance?"

"With you?" he smiled. "Anytime."

"You know, seven has always been my lucky number," she said as she put her head on his shoulder and kissed his cheek.

* * *

The Doctor and Sarah Jane spent the rest of their wedding anniversary enjoying each other's company. They'd had a wonderful dinner and after all the children were asleep, they spent the night reminiscing, cuddling and relaxing together.

"It's been an amazing evening, darling," said Sarah Jane as she snuggled up against the Doctor, yawning contentedly as she snuggled into him.

"Absolutely," the Doctor said. "You know, it just gets better and better."

They were asleep and still wrapped in each other's arms when the cloister bells began to ring.


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor sat up with a jolt and looked at Sarah.

"What is it?" she asked, both hearts pounding. "Can you tell why the cloister bells are going off?" Sarah asked, worried about what kind of danger could be serious enough to cause something that drastic.

"Not in the Zero Room," he said, dropping gently to the floor. He pushed on the door, but it didn't move. He shoved again, to no effect. "TARDIS," he said.

No response.

"This isn't good," he said.

Sarah Jane had dropped down shortly after he had and she was now standing next to him. She put her hands up by her side, shrugged her shoulders and smiled confidently. "Sonic screwdriver," she said as she looked around to see where his jacket was. She went over to it, retrieved the sonic and handed it to him.

He ran the sonic over the edges of the door. "It's deadlock sealed. This is bad. I'd say we're definitely under attack. The children know what to do, right?"

"Of course they do," Sarah Jane nodded affirmatively, very worried now. "They should be in the saferoom right now waiting there until we come and get them."

'Or until something else does,' the Doctor thought.

* * *

At that moment, DR had just finished herding the other five children into the saferoom. "All right, everybody in." He did a quick head count and locked the door. "Tori, if you want to get the rest of the lights on and such, we can take stock. No telling how long we'll be here before Mum and Dad come." But staring at the door, he considered going back out there.

"We should be out there fighting whatever it is with them," said Colin, pushing on the locked door. "We can't just say in here waiting for something to happen."

"Colin," DR said impatiently, "we don't have any idea what's out there." He sighed, staring up at the ceiling as though the answer were there. "The cloister bells only ring if it's a real emergency. This isn't a joke." 'Still,' he thought, 'all the more reason to go out and help.'

Lissie tugged on DR's shirt until he looked down at her.

"What is it, Lissie?"

"Colin was making faces at you when you weren't looking," she said, satisfied.

"Snitch!" Colin said, and threw himself into one of the chairs.

DR sighed. "Tattling isn't nice, Lissie, didn't Mum tell you that?"

"Neither is making faces," she said, and pulled a stuffed Rantonian out of a cubby at just her eye level, holding it close to her. Sarah Jane and the Doctor had built the saferoom specifically for their children, so everything necessary was placed at a level any of them could reach. There were not only supplies, there were toys, games and kits that could keep them amused for hours - and a timelock that would keep anyone and anything but their parents out.

Victoria eyed the supply closet and the beds. Their mother had made a point of teaching her and DR, as the two oldest, how to manage things and, as was the case in all large families, how to care for the younger children. She made a decision. "We should be getting ready to set things up. Who knows how long we'll be here," she said, opening the closet door and looking at the boxes of meals that cooked themselves. "At any rate, there's plenty to eat." She grabbed Colin by the shoulder and dragged him to the closet, then started handing him cots to set up. "You too, Thomas."

Thomas didn't protest, instead competing with Colin to see who could set the cots up faster and better. He liked having something to do; it made him feel important. When he was done with the beds, he started organizing the meals. David wandered over and tried to help. "Leave it, Davy, I've got it," Thomas said.

"But I want to help," David insisted.

"You can help later," Victoria said. "Right now you should lay down and take a nap." She patted the cot next to hers, and laid out a blanket on it. "Come on, you must be tired."

"Why does everybody always want me to take a nap?" David asked. "I'm not tired."

"I am," said Elisabeth, sitting down next to her sister for comfort.

Victoria laid a bed out for her as well, but she didn't want to lie down either.

That's how it went for the next several hours. The children tried to keep their minds off of what was happening by keeping themselves busy. The older children played games and built things, the youngest played with the toys, and they all ate more snacks than their parents would ever have imagined. Periodically, someone would insist that they should go outside, and DR would insist that they follow instructions and stay inside. But after more than four hours of just sitting, waiting, and eating, the children had become bored and agitated, and DR's resolve to stay in the saferoom was crumbling. He'd already run through several scenarios of what could be going on, with each one more elaborate (and frightening) than the last.

"This is all wrong," said Colin, for the fifteenth time. "I say we go out there and find out what's happening. Mum and Dad could be in trouble, maybe they need us," he said firmly.

Thomas' eyes grew wide at the thought. "What if they're hurt?"

David, who'd finally come close to falling asleep, sat bolt upright as Victoria cringed. "I don't want Mummy and Daddy getting hurt," he said. His lip begin to tremble, and a moment later he was crying.

Victoria looked over at him. "Don't worry Davy, they're alright. He didn't mean it. Tommy was being silly, of course they can take care of themselves." She picked David up and set him on her lap, and he snuggled into her shoulder as she glared at Thomas.

"Wonder Man could save them," David sniffed. "I wish I had my cape."

"Still," DR said, now pacing up and down as though he hadn't heard David. "Tommy has a point." Nervous energy made it impossible for him to sit still. He didn't know how long much longer he would be able to stay put. If he weren't taking care of the other five, he could be out there with Mum and Dad. After all, he wasn't a child anymore, he was fourteen and unlike the others, old enough to take care of himself. He started wondering about what his father would do in this situation. Sure, protecting the other kids was his responsibility, but couldn't he do that best by taking a more ... proactive stance?

"They said we should stay put in here no matter how long it takes," said Victoria firmly. At the moment though, she was thinking just as much about what might be going on outside the saferoom and what was happening to their parents as everyone else was. She knew it must be something pretty serious or they'd have come to get them by now. Maybe DR, Colin and herself should go out to see if they could help, and leave the three littlest ones playing safely.

"What if they never come back for us," Elisabeth quivered. She cuddled closer to Victoria's other side, and Victoria put her other arm around her protectively.

"It's OK Lissie," said Victoria. "Mum and Dad know what they're doing." She glared at DR now for agreeing with Tommy out loud. Even if he was right, he shouldn't be frightening Lissie and Davy.

"Then why haven't they come to get us yet, Tori," asked a still worried David.

Victoria looked at DR as if to say, 'You started this, you answer him.'

DR knelt down so he'd be face to face with his youngest brother. "Maybe," he said conspiratorially, "this is just a secret practice they set up and if we leave, we'll get in trouble."

"It's been hours," said Colin standing up and heading towards the door. "They wouldn't leave us here this long just to see if we'll stay inside."

"Maybe they're waiting to see how **long **we'll stay inside," Victoria said.

* * *

"How long do you think they'll stay inside?" the Doctor said, handing Sarah a piece of the wall that he'd finally gotten loose.

"It's been just over four hours, and with our children, it's hard to say," Sarah frowned. "I'd like to think they'll behave and stay put. However, if they're worried about us, and I'm sure they are, I'm guessing they're making plans right about now to help us." "If they're not already out there," the Doctor said. "You know DR, no matter how serious it is, he just wants to jump right in with both feet." He began working on the next layer of wall.

"You're right. Hmm, I wonder where he got **that** from?" Sarah said sarcastically.

The Doctor had been intently focusing on the screw he was trying to remove, but he did hear her. It took him a moment to process what she'd said. "Are you implying something, my dear?"

"No," she smiled at him. "Just thinking out loud. About how long do you think it will take to get all the way through this wall?"

"Depends. I'm honestly not sure what's behind this. Could be a cupboard. Could be a three meter thick wall of machinery. You never can tell with these old Type 40's, you're never quite sure what's where."

"You know, I was just wondering, does it hurt the TARDIS when you do this sort of thing?"

"I don't think 'hurt' is the right word. I'm sure it irritates her, though. And I'll bet she's irritated enough already." He pulled another panel free to reveal yet another set of equipment. He sighed. "As am I."

Sarah looked over his shoulder at the panel, sighed and slumped against the wall, sliding down it until she was sitting on the floor. She put her kness up and hugged them. "There must be another way out of this room."

"There is. It's called a door," he said, jumping down. "But that's not awfully helpful right now, is it," he said, slamming his shoulder up against it in frustration. 

* * *

The Master was awfully pleased with himself. It had taken some time for him to recover from his encounter with Rassilon, but that just meant that he was well rested and ready to wreak havoc. Sure, he and the Doctor had saved each others' lives, but as far as the Master was concerned, that just evened the score and brought them back to where they'd started.

And now he had managed to capture the Doctor and his companion in his own TARDIS. Well, it was his TARDIS now. The TARDIS had given him some trouble, but he was about to fix that. Once he finished locking down the dynamic coupler, he would be in total charge of the TARDIS, and there would be no-one to stop him.


	3. Chapter 3

Just half an hour had passed in the saferoom, and DR was lying on the floor with his feet up on a box, tossing a ball against the back wall behind him and catching it as it bounced back. He couldn't help thinking that Dad and Mum were in trouble, and here he was, babysitting when they needed him most. "OK, that's it," he said, standing up suddenly. "I'm not waiting any more."

"It's about time," said Colin jumping to his feet. "Come on, let's go," he waved his arm for the others to follow him as he headed for the door.

"Just a moment," Victoria said, catching him by the sleeve. "Before we do can anything, I think we first need to find out what's gong on," Victoria said.

"Excellent thinking," DR said. "And I know just who to ask." He sat Colin back down. "TARDIS," he said expectantly.

No response.

"TARDIS?" he said again, more tentative this time.

Still no response. He stroked the wall gently. "Come on, girl, we need to talk to you." When there was still no response, he turned to Victoria. "That's odd. You talk to her more than I do, do you want to try?"

Victoria nodded. "TARDIS, what's wrong? Why won't you answer us?" She waited, but received no response. She turned to her brother, trying not to let her shock show on her face. She pulled DR aside and turned her back to the other children. "This is really serious, DR," she whispered. "Whatever has happened has affected the TARDIS too."

DR looked at the other children staring at them expectantly, and guided Victoria back into the fold. "All right, whatever's going on out there, as you can see, it's also affected the TARDIS. But the TARDIS isn't dead or anything or we would be on emergency power, so someone or something must be controlling her. That's good, because it means that whoever it is, they don't want to destroy her. We just have to stop them getting complete control, if they don't have it already."

Colin sat there fuming. "I say we go out there, find them, just clobber whoever it is, and then find Mum and Dad.

"Colin," Victoria said, "whoever it is out there has the smarts to take control of the TARDIS, and maybe even Mum and Dad. Going out there guns blazing, so to speak, isn't going to help."

"No," DR said. "It's not. But we've wasted enough time in here already, so we'd better move fast if we're going to have any chance of doing anything." He was feeling good now that they'd decided to take action. He felt like his mind was finally firing on all cylinders. "Tori, you're the one who's always under the console with Dad, if someone were trying to take over the TARDIS, what would they have to do?"

She thought about it for a moment. "Well, first they'd have to lock out the Digman oscillator, but to really control things they'd have to disable all 14 outlets of the dynamic coupler. If they could find them, that is."

"Then we're fine," Thomas said. "'Cause Dad can't even find that last one, remember?"

"I wonder how many of them are out there," said Colin. "We could be up against a whole army."

Elisabeth hid behind her sister. "A whole army," she repeated in whispered awe.

"I wish I had my cape," David said, barely audible. He sat in the corner, knees drawn up to his chin, looking as though he would burst into tears at any moment.

Victoria quietly walked over to the water closet, picked up a bright blue towel and handed to her brother.

David looked up at the towel and smiled widely as he took it from her and tied it around his neck, then climbed to his feet and struck a heroic pose. "No one needs to be afraid now. Wonder Man is here and he can lick a whole army in no time," said David bravely. At his age and with his 'cape' on, nothing seemed impossible. He knew no fear. What he didn't know was that it was because he had never been exposed to anything to be afraid of.

"Of course he can," DR said, "but I think we need to give him a hand. We need to find that last oscillator outlet and ... well, I'm not sure what yet, but we'll need to do something. Tori, I'll take David, you take Lissie, and Colin and Thomas, you two go together. We all look for exactly 15 minutes, then we meet back here. If anybody sees anything they are to come back here immediately without engaging the enemy. Got it?"

"Got it," five heads nodded in unison.

* * *

"A-ha," the Doctor said. "Now I know where we are." He sat back against the wall of the tunnel.

"Offhand, I'd say lost, but my sense of humor seems to have failed me. I'm too busy worrying about the children to be funny." They had been taking turns 'digging' through the TARDIS walls and she was exhausted. "I don't really care so much about where we are, as I do about how much farther we have to dig before we're out of here."

"Yes, well, that's the good news," the Doctor said tiredly. "There's not much farther to dig."

"I hate to point this out, but you said that an hour ago, and we're still here." She moved a chunk of wall aside and sighed loudly.

"Er ... yes, well, that's the bad news."

"What do you mean?"

He sighed and hung his head, then pointed the sonic back in the direction from which they'd come.

Sarah looked at how far they'd managed to burrow into the wall. "So? What's back there? I don't understand what you're getting at, Doctor."

He took a deep breath. "You know how the TARDIS is a living organism? Well, sometimes she moves things around. The ... er ... 'thin' spot I was looking for, well, it's ... " He pointed again. "Back that way."

"Oh no," Sarah Jane groaned. "Are you sure?"

"As sure as I could be in a TARDIS that can't communicate with me," he said, looking as though he were going to slam his fist into the wall. "And the worst part is that technically we're still in the Zero Room, so I have absolutely no idea what's going on out there. Could be a whole army, and I wouldn't be able to sense the first bit of it."

"This is all my fault," said Sarah miserably. "I had to come up with spending a night in the one room in the TARDIS with the thickest walls." She looked like she was going to burst into tears. "If anything has happened to the children, I'll never forgive myself."

"This is NOT your fault," the Doctor said, taking her by the shoulders. "It's not as though you knew this was going to happen. The TARDIS's shields were up and everything; I don't know how it **could **even have happened. The important thing is that we need to get out of here. But in the meantime, the children are probably still tucked up safe and sound in the saferoom."

"What if they're not? What if they got tired of waiting and decided to come out to see what's happening? What if they've been captured and hurt?" Sarah shuddered at the thought of the children at the hands of whatever or whoever had the power to take over the TARDIS.

The Doctor sighed. He hoped, of course, that nothing had happened to them, but he knew that it wasn't just possible, it was absolutely likely that the children had abandoned the saferoom in favor of trying to find them. "Sarah, I know this is hard to remember, but they're not helpless. I mean, I know they're young, but we have been teaching them things they need to know since before they could even talk."

"Practice is one thing my love, reality is another." She looked at him, fear in her eyes. "If we don't know what we're up against, what chance do the children have out there without us?" She began to cry.

The Doctor just held her for a few minutes. The hardest part, aside from worrying about the children, was seeing someone so strong at their limit. But he knew how she felt. This situation was precisely what he'd worried about since the moment she'd told him she was pregnant all those years ago. And now it was here. His family needed him, and he was helpless to protect them. He'd watched his family burn on Gallifrey; he'd sworn never to be in that situation again. "Then we'd better get out there," he said gruffly - perhaps a little too gruffly. He stopped and lifted Sarah's chin so that he could stare into her red eyes. "Now where's my brave girl?" he said, forcing a smile on his face.

Sarah looked into his eyes and saw the resolve in them. Because they were bonded, she knew exactly how he felt at that moment. She sniffed and then wiped her eyes. "Right here and ready to do whatever it takes," she said firmly.

"Then let's go rescue our children," he answered, and led her towards the new place to dig.

* * *

Thomas stood in the hallway as lookout while Colin combed the corridor for the dynamic coupler. Mostly, he pouted because Colin wasn't letting him do anything but watch, but he still took the job extremely seriously. So when he saw something move, he had enough time to both dive into Colin to push him out of the hallway and put his hand over his mouth so he wouldn't make any noise.

"Tommy," Colin whispered. "have you gone mad? What did you do that for."

Thomas didn't say anything at first, just pointing towards the hallway. "Someone's here."

Colin's eyes darted towards the hallway. He crawled on his elbows till he got to the door. He slowly and cautiously poked his head out of it. He saw a figure dressed in a black suit looking intently at a panel on the wall that opened one of the rooms they had been forbidden to enter. He pulled back into the room. "I think he's trying to get into the room with the gray and black door."

"Do you think the last coupler's in there?" Thomas said apprehensively.

Colin gave his brother a sharp glance. "Since we've never been in there, how should I know? Oh, do be sensible for once, Tommy."

"Well ... can you tell who it is, at least?"

Colin crossed his arms and looked as if he were in deep thought. "Let's see, I'm ten years old, never been off the TARDIS by myself, only visit with Mum and Dad's friends... Of course not, you nit!" he whispered coldly.

"Well, then," Thomas said, staring down his brother, "I guess you **don't **know everything."

Colin's mouth popped open in surprise. He started to get angry, then laughed instead. "Well that's one on me isn't it? Good on you, Tommy," he patted his back.

"Yeah, well, we'd better get back to the saferoom and tell DR and Tori."

"Right, follow me closely and be careful not to make a sound." Colin looked out of the room again, and the stranger was gone. They ran all the way back to the saferoom, where the others were already back and waiting for them.

"We saw a stranger," shouted Thomas as soon as the door was closed. "He was by one of the rooms we're not allowed in. The one with gray and black door!" he exclaimed.

DR breathed a sigh of relief that they were back. "Good job. Just one, then?"

Thomas and Colin nodded.

"Well, that's good, at least. And your wonderful sister," he said, grabbing Victoria in a friendly headlock, "has disguised the ring seal gibbet to look like the last oscillator outlet, so the intruder will stop looking, at least temporarily."

Victoria smiled proudly. "I put a hidden stun lock on it too. Whoever is loose in the TARDIS is in for a very rude surprise if he manages to find it. I can't wait to tell Dad and Mum."

"And we will," DR said, "as soon as we do one last thing to slow the intruder down a little more."

* * *

The intruder, meanwhile, smiled with satisfaction. If he were the humming type, the Master would have been humming up a storm. The best part of it all was that he had the Doctor right where he wanted him, even if he hadn't found that last damned coupler outlet yet. And a companion as well! The companion was a bonus. She or he would be leverage if the Master needed it, and entertainment if he wanted it. After all, he'd had so **much **fun torturing Jack Harkness ... and he was overdue for a little fun.

He rounded yet another corner towards the most likely location for the last outlet, still thinking about Captain Harkness and how much he had enjoyed the year he and the Doctor were his guests. He rubbed his chin, thinking about the possibilities available to him, and wondering were he wanted to start. A year hadn't been long enough for him to get bored with the possibilities there. To have the Doctor on his own turf ... it was almost enough to distract him from the task at hand.

Almost.


	4. Chapter 4

DR watched Victoria check her handiwork one last time. If they had guessed right about what the intruder would do next, this should do the trick, and then they could go back to trying to find Mum and Dad. "Looks like it's working. He's in for a rude surprise if he does find it." She beamed with accomplishment, excited.

"Great," DR said. "Now you go back to the saferoom and I'll stay here and make sure it works."

Her smile faded as she took in what he said. "No way," she finally said. "I'm staying right here to see this through. Who died and left you the boss?"

DR took her by the shoulders and turned her in the direction of the saferoom. Standing behind her, he leaned in close to her ear. "I'm the one Mum and Dad are going to blame if somebody gets hurt, so that makes me the boss. Now go back to the saferoom and I'll be there as soon as this works." He turned her to face him and fixed her with a firm stare. "And stay put."

Victoria glared at him, then spun on her heels and stomped off. She'd go for now, but DR hadn't heard the last of this yet. She was twelve, and old enough to think for herself. She didn't need her older brother telling her what to do, after all, just because he was bigger than her, that didn't make him smarter than she was. She was just as capable of handling this intruder as he was. 'DR thinks he's such a big deal just because he's fourteen and a boy,' she grumbled to herself. 'One day, I'll show him. I'll show everyone that I can do anything I decide to do.'

It didn't take long for the Master to follow the "clues" DR and Victoria had left leading him to the bogus dynamic coupler outlet, but when he finally got there, it seemed to be making a strange noise. 'Just like the Doctor's TARDIS,' he thought. 'He's never been able to get this collection of junk to work properly. That is one thing that is definitely going to change.'

He was leaned over the coupler to get a closer look at it when it suddenly locked up and thick black oil started to spurt out of it, and he realized he'd been played. In seconds, he was coughing and sputtering, covered in viscous inky fluid, and cursing the Doctor with terms that hadn't been heard since the destruction of Gallifrey. He took out his handkerchief and tried to wipe off as much of the oil as he could, but only succeeded in smearing the fluid on his face even worse than it already was. Cursing again, he skulked away in search of the sonic shower.

DR smiled at their handiwork and watched him stumble away. He thought that he should probably go back to the saferoom, but now that he'd seen this stranger close up, he didn't seem quite so threatening. Somehow, in his mind, he'd built the intruder up into a huge, horrible monster. Now that he could see that he was just a man. No horns, just close-cropped blond hair. No horrible fangs, just a disgusted look on his perfectly normal face. Emboldened by the realization that they'd been frightened by just one man, he followed their quarry, his stocking feet carrying him silently behind. But who was this man who seemed to know his way around the TARDIS? For now, he just watched.

Victoria meanwhile, had not, in fact, gone back to the saferoom, but had been around another corner, watching quietly, unseen by both the stranger and her brother. But rather than following, she'd guessed where the intruder was heading, and ran ahead as he made his way blindly, oil dripping slowly from his head and down his face. 'I'd hate to be him when Mum sees the mess he's making,' she thought to herself. Arriving with close to a minute to spare, she made a few quick adjustments to the sonic shower, then hid in a nearby alcove to listen and wait. In very short order, she heard screaming and laughed quietly to herself.

The Master stalked out of the sonic shower, still covered in black oil and now barely able to walk as he tried to shake the axle grease off of himself. He decided instead to try to find the boot cupboard so that he could change his clothes and at least get rid of some of the grease and oil.

Victoria caught up with her brother. "Nice move, don't you think," she smiled proudly at him.

DR didn't say anything, but he did smile in spite of himself. "Looks like he's heading for the boot cupboard. That gives us a few minutes, at least. Is everybody else in the saferoom?"

"Supposed to be," she smiled back at him. Suddenly her eyes lit up. "While he's busy in the boot cupboard, why don't we try to lock him in there?"

"Good idea," DR said. "Shouldn't be too hard." They hurried to the work room to gather supplies. "I mean, it's just one man, right?

* * *

Now that he was sure where they were headed, the Doctor was a machine, tearing down portions of the TARDIS with only an occasional mental "sorry" to the craft. He barely spoke, instead concentrating on what he was doing, and on not letting his anxiety flood back into Sarah through their bond. He just kept thinking about the children, and what they must be going through. This was what they'd meant to shield their children from.

Sarah took the pieces of wall from him as quickly as she could. She glanced over at him occasionally as she moved the broken TARDIS pieces out of his way. She didn't need their bond to tell how worried he was; she was worried too. And she had seen what he apparently hadn't yet noticed: that his hands were raw and there was blood on the chunks he was handing to her. She knew he needed her help, and not just to clear away the debris created by their digging. "It's my turn now, Doctor."

"No, it's fine," he said, and kept digging.

"Look, if I'm not allowed to blame myself, then neither are you. Now let me dig for a while, you've done enough for now." She may have sounded as if she were snapping at him, but he could hear the love and concern in her voice as well.

"I'm not blaming myself," he said, perhaps a little too sharply. "It's just ..." He took a deep breath, then went back to digging. It was easier to talk if he weren't looking right at her. "One thing I've always appreciated is that our children were happy. I mean, when I was a child, we were always afraid of something. Our teachers, bullies, the universe at large, there was always something that made us afraid. I never wanted out children to feel that."

Sarah Jane put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Look, I know exactly what you mean my love, but I've been thinking too. I've always wanted the children to have as normal and as safe a life as we could possibly give them, but maybe we made a mistake by sheltering them so much. Sooner or later, they're all going to grow up and leave. We're not always going to be there to protect them. If we haven't taught them about the darker side of life, what's going to happen to them when they come face to face with it? I think we may have made a mistake by not preparing them for life's dangers and disappointments."

The Doctor didn't have an answer for her. Seeing the darker side of the universe hadn't kept him from being afraid later. In fact, he mused, it was probably the core of what made him the man he was now. For not the first time, he thought about the paths he and the Master had taken from those childhood days of running through red grass until they could barely breathe. Even then they were running, he thought. Running from the future, from the universe, from themselves, from the awesome knowledge of everything that had ever, would ever, could ever happen. The knowledge that was their curse as Time Lords.

But mostly running from the fear, as though if they ran fast enough or far enough or hard enough they could somehow find peace.

* * *

Having found the boot cupboard, the Master grabbed at the first thing he could find, wiping his face as best as he could in a long white lacy skirt. When he got as much of the dirt as he could off of him, he threw it down and started looking around for something to change into. He was disgusted by what he saw. Everything in the cupboard was colorful and bright. He saw something black and reached for it, recoiling quickly, nauseated by the touch of the velvet suit. Finally, he settled for a dark suit with a black frock coat, striped pants and a white shirt. Feeling something odd in the jacket pocket, he reached into it and found a wooden recorder. He tossed it over his shoulder with disdain.

While he searched the back of the cupboard for a pair of shoes that weren't slick with oil, DR slowly, quietly, fitted the long metal pole through the outer handle of the boot cupboard door. Finally, he grabbed hold of the pole and quickly pulled the door closed, pushing the pole so that it was now wedged across the doorway, holding the door shut. "Come help me," he said to Victoria. Together they took the tape and fastened the pole to the door and the wall so that it wouldn't fall. DR pulled on it to make sure it was secure. "Well, that was easy." He tugged on it again, just to be sure. "Now let's go find Mum and Dad."

"Right," said Victoria. She started walking down the hall with her brother. "Where do you think they could be?"

"They said that they were going to spend the night in the Zero Room, but there's no way of telling if they're in there now."

Victoria grew worried. "You don't suppose he sent them away somehow."

DR shrugged. "I suppose anything's possible, but I doubt it. I mean, look, he's just one man, how dangerous could he be?" He looked back down the hall at their handiwork on the boot cupboard door. "I mean, we just locked him up with a pole and some tape. He's hardly the most dangerous person in the universe, is he?"

The Master, meanwhile, found a pair of shoes and slipped them on, then headed for the door. Pushing on it, he growled as he realized something was blocking it. He reached into his pocket and found the laser screwdriver he had transferred from his other clothes, then aimed it at the door and blasted it open with a loud clap and nary a second thought.

Victoria and DR both saw the explosion, and without a single word of discussion they took off for the saferoom as fast as their legs would carry them.

When they got there, DR knocked on the door in the pattern they'd known as long as they could remember. The door opened and David launched himself at them. "You're back!"

DR carried him back into the saferoom, his face still white as a sheet. "Everybody listen," he said, closing the door behind Victoria, who was as pale as he was. "Whoever this man who's in the TARDIS is, he's very, very dangerous." He caught Victoria's eye, and knew she understood that they needed to try and convince the younger ones of the danger - without scaring them. "So we need to be very, very careful, all right?"

"Who is it," asked Elisabeth, running to her sister's side and hugging her.

"We don't know, but he's pretty angry at this point, I'm guessing," Victoria said. "We locked him in the boot cupboard, but he ... got out somehow." She looked at DR for support.

Elisabeth's hands clung to her sister's skirt. "I'm scared," she said, trembling.

Still holding David on one hip, DR knelt down in front of his sister until their eyes met. "It's all going to be alright Lissie." He took her hand and stood up. "Now listen, everyone. We do need to be careful, but remember, there's only one of him and there's six of us, so we still have the advantage." He looked back at Victoria. They were going to have to find a way to defeat this man, and fast.


	5. Chapter 5

Wonder Man adjusted his cape and thought about what to do about this stranger who had invaded his secret lair. He was sure that Captain Evil was behind this. Who else would be so bold as to infiltrate the home of Wonder Man and his companions? He wouldn't get a way with it, of that Wonder Man was certain. He looked over his companions, deep in thought.

"I know," Thomas said. "Why don't we snare him, like in the cartoons?"

"Yeah," Wonder Man said excitedly. "That's an excellent plan. And fun!"

"Fun yes," DR said, "but I don't know how practical."

Wonder Man decided to let his companion's pessimism slide. After all, not everyone could see things as clearly as he could.

"Wait," said Victoria. "They may have something there."

"We can set a sonic snare for him," Thomas went on, pulling a toy off of the toy shelf and sitting down. He began to take the toy apart. "If we do this right, whoever this chap is, he'll regret coming here to threaten us."

DR watched him for a few moments. "That is a great idea," he finally said. "Everybody look around and let's see what we can do with what we've got in here."

Wonder Man led the way to the toy shelves, while each child searched the room to see what they might be able to use as a weapon. He watched DR smile as he pulled out a stringless yo-yo that could only be operated with practiced mental skills. It had been present from his father, two years ago, that he had put there for one of his siblings to play with after he had mastered it. Wonder Man had tried it, once, but had decided that it was for someone who didn't have a whole universe to think about.

Victoria reached for a metal bracelet. It was made to stretch out as big or as small as whoever controlled it wanted it to be.

Wonder Man groaned quietly as Colin found two magnets that flew in orbit around each other and sent out sparks of electricity between them. He still remembered when, Colin, no doubt under Captain Evil's control, had chased him around the lair with them.

He did smile, however, when Elisabeth took off the necklace she had worn to bed. It had a small projector in it that showed stars and planets on the walls and ceilings. He often liked to sit with her and fall asleep watching it on the ceiling of one of their rooms.

Suddenly he had a thought. He smiled widely and took a huge bag off of the bottom shelf, then set it on the table with a satisfied smile. "Boomerang marbles," he said proudly. No matter how hard you shot them away from you, they would come back as soon as you set out the retriever marble.

"Marvelous," smiled Victoria. "Now let's start making plans for these."

David jumped up, marbles in hand. "Right, first I go ahead, and the rest of you follow me. I'll swoop in and yell 'Kazoom,'" he said, becoming more and more animated as he spoke. "Once he sees me, he'll start running away. Then I'll throw my marbles at him." He pretended to throw the marbles, leaping about now. "When he falls down, I jump him and then the rest of you jump him too." Now he was pouncing on his victim. "He'll be too scared to do anything after that. Once he's good and scared, we make him tell us where mum and dad are, then I'll go and free them while the rest of you stay there sitting on Captain Evil till we come back and dad can lock him up," David smiled with satisfaction, his arms crossed in his best Wonder Man pose.

The room was silent for a moment while everyone contemplated the brilliance of his plan. Then a general snickering started, and DR picked up Wonder Man and set him on his lap. "It's a good plan, Wonder Man," he said seriously, "but I think you're taking too much responsibility on yourself. You should let other people shoulder the load as well."

"But DR, that's Captain Evil out there! He's my arch enemy! Besides that, Wonder Man is the hero, he **has** to save everyone. The rest of you are **my** companions. That means you have to follow **me**."

DR put up a hand to interrupt Victoria, who was about to say something. "You're right, Wonder Man, you are the hero, and we're just your minions, but that's why you have to stay here. This way we can go out there and carry out your plans. Because somebody has got to stay here and protect Lissie and the other children. We need somebody we can count on for that. We need," he said, pausing for effect, "a hero."

David thought about what his brother said for a moment, then he looked around the room. He saw Tori's face first, smiling encouragingly at him. Next he looked at Lissie. She looked worried and scared. She really did need protecting. Then he saw Thomas and Colin smirking at him. 'They probably think I can't manage this,' he thought to himself. His eyes narrowed as he scowled at his two older brothers. "I'll stay here DR, I'm Wonder Man and I can handle any job, no matter how tough it is."

"I knew we could count on you. Thank you, Wonder Man," DR said, then set him on the bed and began to pace. "Overall, I like Wonder Man's plan, but I think we can add a few things to it."

* * *

After a bit of discussion, the overall plan was in place. First, they would distract him with the floating electrical balls Instead of throwing the marbles at "Captain Evil" - as everyone decided to call him, rather than "the stranger" - they'd scatter them across a hallway so he wouldn't see them until he was literally tripping over them. They would just keep using the marbles until he fell down. As long as they had the retriever to bring them back, the plan was foolproof. Once he fell and was down on the ground, DR would start hitting him with the yo-yo. While that distracted him, Victoria would maneuver with bracelet over him and then he couldn't move. The last step would be to get Captain Evil to tell them where their parents were and how to free them. If they had to they would use the sonic snare, now rigged and ready to use as a type of mild disruptor to get him to talk. It wouldn't hurt him, but they were sure a few moments of being shook up by the vibrations it caused would make anyone talk.

The next decision was who was to go, and who was to stay. It seemed to be obvious that the three oldest should go out and leave the three youngest where it was safe, but DR was a bit dubious. Most of the toys they were using required mental control, and Thomas was just plain better at it than Colin. He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Colin," he said, pulling him aside, and whispering conspiratorially, "I'm a bit concerned about leaving Thomas in charge of the little ones. Do you think you can handle it?"

Colin shot him a look that was less then pleasant. "I don't fool as easily as all that DR. Who do you think I am, Davy? You want Thomas to go with you because you think he's got the best mental control skills."

DR glared back at him. "Well, he does."

He stood there glaring at his brother, arms folded over his chest tightly. "You all think that don't you? I've a good mind to use the orbiting mental balls on all of you and then go out and handle this myself."

David walked over and took Colin's hand, then looked up at him hopefully. "Colin, please stay here with us."

Colin looked down and his face softened a bit. "Why do you want me to stay with you, Davy?"

Davy motioned for Colin to bend down, and when he did, he whispered in Colin's ear.

After a few moments Colin stood up again, posturing to his full height. "On second thought DR, I have decided to stay here in the saferoom and protect the little ones."

DR decided not to worry about just what Davy had said to convince him, though he reconsidered for just a moment when he saw Davy wink at him. In the end, he decided just to be grateful that he didn't have to argue with Colin.

* * *

The Master had, by now, recovered most of his composure, and had gone back to concentrating on simply searching the TARDIS for whomever was trying to stop him, rather than mentally cataloging the tortures he was going to engage in when he did. He thought he heard footsteps, and carefully headed off in the direction from which it had come. Approaching a corner, he looked around cautiously, up and down the hall and then, smiling to himself, headed towards the source of the sound. As he did, two metal balls the size of golf balls shot to either side of his head and electricity sparked towards him, sending short waves of static, shocking his hair and face. He jumped; they were small jolts, not enough to hurt, but enough to surprise him, and to make his hair stand on end. A small part of his mind mused that with the ill-fitting clothes he'd scavenged from the boot cupboard, he must look ridiculous, and this annoyed him even more than the electricity. He swung at the balls, but they kept out of his grasp, shooting him as they flew around him. "Harkness, you are really starting to annoy me now. When I get my hands on you..." his voice trailed off as he fell and hit the ground hard. He'd been so annoyed by the metal balls, he apparently hadn't noticed a large collection of marbles on the floor. His back and head hit the TARDIS floor as he fell and he swore loudly in high Gallifreyan. "Enjoy yourself now, because I will make you pay for this insult dearly," the Master cried out as the glass orbs slid past him and over him. Figuring that they were returning to their owner, he quickly scrambled to his feet and followed the marbles around the corner.

Thomas heard him coming and panicked. That wasn't what was supposed to happen. DR was supposed to distract him with the yo-yo while Victoria got him with the bracelet. Not knowing what else to do, he threw the retriever marble as hard as he could back in the other direction, then ducked back into the alcove.

The Master saw the cloud of marbles coming at him after the retriever, but it was too big to sidestep, and in a moment he was on the floor again, this time he face first. He sat up and spat out a marble, along with a piece of tooth that had broken off, and a significant portion of blood from both the rest of the tooth, now hanging by a thread, and the portion of his lip that had been cut open in the impact. The worst of the damage, though, was to his nose, now broken and both bleeding profusely and swelling quickly.

"Well," DR whispered, to Thomas as he joined him in the alcove, "we don't have the marbles now, but that was worth it, don't worry."

As the Master pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket to try to stop the bleeding, the yo-yo appeared over his head as DR concentrated on hitting him soundly in the head with it. Instead DR only glanced the side of his temple, but when he looked up to see what was going on, the heavy metal toy came down squarely on his eye. He grabbed his eye and when he did, the yo yo hit him on the ear.

"Dash it all," said DR. "It's harder to do when you're concentrating on a moving target. What is taking Tori so long?"

The Master struggled and after a few moments, he managed to stand. Ignoring his bloody nose now, he started twisting and turning, determined to catch the yo-yo as it flew around his head. Finally, it hit him soundly on the head, and he was sure he heard someone whisper, "That's better." Now he was really furious. He couldn't see out of one eye, and apparently whomever was controlling the object knew it, because, he kept getting hit on his blind side. Now he was sure he heard laughter and started to look around with his good eye. "Who's that laughing?" He started to walk towards the sound.

Victoria had been trying to sneak up on him, but he was now almost around the corner, so that part of the plan had to be aborted for the moment.

"This is very bad," whispered DR to Victoria and Thomas as the Master drew closer to them. "Follow me down the hall until we're far enough away to try and catch him again with the bracelet. Allons-y!"

Victoria and Thomas followed their brother down the hall, determined to set up their trap once more.

The master headed towards the next corridor. He was walking very slowly and watching every turn. When nothing happened, he began to become paranoid. Something was wrong and he knew it. "When I catch you, I'll be the one that's laughing, I can promise you that." Then he heard laughter and saw a little girl pointing at him from the end of the corridor. Throwing caution to the wind, he took off after her. Unfortunately for him, that led him smack into one side of Victoria's bracelet, which they had stretched across the hallway at neck level. He rebounded backwards, once again landing on his keister, but not before dislodging it with his chin, causing it to snap back around his neck like a costume choker. It wasn't quite tight enough to really strangle him, but it was completely annoying, and complemented his spiked hair perfectly. He began to choke.

"Turn him lose Tori, you're going to kill him," shouted Thomas.

Concentrating, Victoria loosened it just enough so that it would slide down to elbow level, then tightened it again. The three children let out a cheer and started towards the Master with the sonic snare to find out where their parents were.

The Master looked down on the bracelet encircling him and silently cursed himself. He'd been so bent on revenge, he hadn't been thinking clearly. He knew what these toys were; he and Theta had played with them as children; they were meant to sharpen a Time Lord's mental skills. This nonsense was going to end. Now.

DR held both arms out to stop his siblings as he realized that the bracelet not only wasn't holding the intruder, it was flying towards them. He grabbed them and spun around, tearing off towards the garden, where there was lots of cover.

The Master took off after them, and for a split second saw them slide into the room as he turned the corner. He entered the garden slowly, carefully, looking around for any other traps, but he couldn't have predicted the sonic snare on the floor. The vibration under his feet was just enough to knock him off balance, and he landed squarely in a patch of cacti. He jumped up as quickly as he could, but he was now covered in long sharp needles. He cried out as he began to pick them out of his skin. "Oh, when I catch you three, I promise you'll only live long enough to regret it!" Oh, the things running through his mind. These little monsters would be grown up before he finished everything he had planned for them. If he let them live that long.

Colin, meanwhile, had decided that the three of them had waited in the saferoom long enough, and he come out to see if he could help. He'd seen DR, Victoria, and Thomas heading for the garden, but having turned back to get David and Elisabeth, he had not, unfortunately, seen the Master. So when David had come running into the garden looking for DR, he'd been shocked to see the Master standing there, shouting. So shocked, in fact, that he stood there for a moment, just staring.

It was just a moment, but it was long enough that when he did take off running, his cape was still close enough for the Master to grab, and he fell to the floor as it caught around his neck. "Got you now, you little monster," he said, picking him up and getting a better grip on him as the four and half year old squirmed to get away.

"Alright you little demons!" he shouted. "I've got one of you and if you don't all come out **right now**," he said, tightening the towel around his fist, "I am going to strangle him to death."


	6. Chapter 6

David stopped squirming and crossed his arms in a heroic pose. "You know you don't stand a chance against Wonder Man, Captain Evil," he said boldly. "If you surrender peacefully right now, I promise not to harm you."

The Master just looked at him for a moment, brows furrowed in confusion. He put his face right up to David's. "You realize, of course, that I can kill you right now."

"No you can't, I've got super powers and I can crush you with just one blow of my mighty fists." David 'flexed' his muscles and tightened his fists to prove his point.

The Master would have laughed at him, but he was too stunned by the lack of fear in David's face. He stared coldly into the boy's eyes instead. "Do you know something? I'm **really** going to enjoy teaching you what pain feels like." He picked David up holding him as high as he could so the others could see him. "I suggest the rest of you come out right now. If you don't, I'll give you a choice, would you like to watch, or do you prefer to just listen to him scream in agony?"

DR, who was crouched behind a Darlique Petalshrub, suddenly came to the realization that none of his siblings understood just how dangerous this man was. For a moment, he wished that he was David's age, and oblivious to the danger in front of them. Then he realized that it was all up to him, and he hadn't a clue how to save his brother. In desperation, he shot to his feet. "Don't hurt him," he blurted out. "It was me, he didn't do anything to you."

"Commendable, but unimportant," said the Master, pretending to yawn.

Four more faces popped up from the bushes. "You let him go or you'll be sorry," threatened Victoria.

"Not me, but your little friend here is going to have a hard time breathing if you try anything else. Now tell me who you are and where you came from," he said.

"You first," Colin said, "who are you and how did you get in here?"

"Listen you little cretin, in case you failed to notice it, I'm in charge here right now and if you don't answer me this minute, Wonder Man here is going to be armless, if you take my meaning." He lowered David's squirming body so that he could get a better grip, and twisted his arm until he cried out.

DR caught movement out of the corner of his eye, beneath the Metebelis Angel flowers. The tiny cephalopod had been more of a friend than a pet to all of them for their whole lives. Now he was lying on the cool soil, looking as if he were plotting something, and DR was afraid of what would happen if he did. 'Norman,' he silently begged, 'behave yourself.' But when the cephalopod twitched a little, DR jumped to his feet. "Don't hurt him!" he shouted. "We'll tell you what you want to know. Just ... don't hurt him."

"That's better," smirked the Master. "Now then, answer my questions. Who are you?"

"I'm DR, and this is Elisabeth, Victoria, Colin, and Thomas. And that's David you're holding."

"Where did you all come from?" he asked them as he looked them over.

"That way," DR said, pointing in the general direction of their bedrooms.

"I meant, who's children are you," the Master said impatiently. "Did the Doctor rescue you from somewhere?"

"Yes," DR said quickly. "The Doctor ... rescued us. From ... Praxis III."

"I see, well I shall have to thank him for that. I now have six charming little rug rats to sell as slaves. You little brats should bring a nice price on the open market. Now follow me," he said as he headed down the hall with David now in his arms. "Remember, if you try anything, I'll break Wonder Man's neck."

DR hesitated. He had no doubt that this man was serious, and that being sold as slaves was probably the best-case scenario. He knew he had to find a way for them to escape, but for now, they had to comply as long as the intruder had David, so he motioned for them to follow.

Just then David looked back and winked at his siblings. Then he pulled the little toy projector that was Lissie's quietly out of his pocket. The children had rejected it as useless as far as weapons were concerned, and DR shook his head and waved his arms at him to try and get him to stop what ever he was about to do.

The Master turned his head just in time to see DR waving his hands at his brother. He turned quickly back to his captive and smiled viciously at him.

David glared at him, still unafraid and preparing to make his big move and save the day.

The Master slowly wrapped one hand around David's throat. "I see that some one needs to be taught a lesson."

"That's right," the Doctor said as everyone in the room collectively spun around to see him standing in the doorway, his long coat silhouetted behind him like David's cape. "And the first lesson is to pick on somebody your own size." He trembled slightly, but it seemed to be more rage than fear. Blood dripped from his clenched fist.

His entrance caught the Master off-guard, but only for a moment. "Ah Doctor, I'm not sure how you got out of the Zero room, but you're just in time. Things were getting a little boring without your feeble attempts to defeat me." He held David firmly, stroking his head and laughing sardonically. "How thoughtful of you to provide me with six little playthings along with you and you're pretty companion."

Sarah Jane's eyes narrowed as she stared him down.

The Master ignored her. "It's like getting a box of assorted chocolates and trying to decide which one to chose first." He placed his hand on David's head. "This one looks as if it has a soft center, I should probably squeeze it just to be sure."

David smiled back at him now, even more confidently. "You can't hurt me now, my Daddy and Mummy are here and they won't let you."

The Master stared at him for a moment, then cocked his head as though trying to relieve a crick in his neck. He looked hard at the little boy, then the other children, then incredulously at the Doctor and Sarah. He was silent for a moment, as he pondered. Then he shook his head slowly. "Impossible." He looked around again. "IMPOSSIBLE!" He looked back at David, murder in his eyes. Furiously, he once again grabbed the boy by the throat and began to squeeze.

"Stop, please," shouted Sarah Jane, her hearts pounding with fear. "He's only a child, kill me, not him!"


	7. Chapter 7

Unfortunately for the Master, what David had said to Colin to get him to stay in the saferoom was that he was sure that Elisabeth's projector could be a potent weapon, and that only Colin could modify it to make it so. So when David shined it in the Master's good eye, it combined with Sarah's outburst to provide just enough distraction for the Doctor to launch himself into the Master, knocking all three of them to the floor and sending David skidding across it.

From out of nowhere, Norman jumped on the Master's face and bit his already broken nose as hard as he could.

Six surprised young voices cheered as the cephalopod jumped back into the flower bed and made spitting noises.

While the Master was writhing on the floor in pain, Sarah Jane leapt over him and grabbed David up in her arms. "My poor baby, are you all right?" asked Sarah as she ran her hands over his face to make sure he was unharmed. She hugged him tightly to her and kissed him when she was sure he was alright.

"Eew! Mummy stop, I'm fine. Nothing can hurt Wonder Man. Didn't you see me defeat Captain Evil with my super ray? Now put me down so I can rescue daddy!"

"I think that you better stay put for now Davy, and let daddy be the hero this time." She held onto David tightly and looked over towards the Doctor's direction, where he had a knee in the Master's back and one arm twisted at what seemed like an impossible angle as he struggled.

DR stood staring at them, a cylindrical object in his hand, his thumb poised over a button.

"Tori take Davy and the rest of the children and go back to the saferoom until we come for you, and this time stay there," Sarah said firmly.

Victoria did as she was told, dragging a protesting David with her, leaving the four of them alone.

DR stared at the object in his hand. It looked something like his father's sonic, but a bit more menacing. He pointed it at the floor and pushed a button, and all three adults spun their heads to look as the laser bolt scorched the floor. "I wonder," he said, his voice just a little bit shaky, "what would happen if I pointed this somewhere more useful." He leaned down and pointed it in the Master's face.

The Master stopped struggling and looked up at DR. "This is more like it, one of your children with a weapon in his hand and not afraid to use it," he smirked at the Doctor. "Go ahead and try it, I hope you shoot yourself with it you little bast-"

"Language," the Doctor said sharply as he cinched up the Master's wrists with some stray wire he'd had in his pocket. "DR, give it here," he said, holding out his hand to his son.

DR looked down at this man who'd menaced his family. Even with the man under his father's control, DR still felt the tight knot of fear in his stomach, and it made him angry. How dare this man invade their home and threaten them? How could this man hurt his brother? He shook with rage as he remembered his feeling of helplessness. But not now. Now he had the power. All he had to do was press one little button.

"DR," the Doctor said again, gently. "He's not worth it."

'Not worth it?' he thought. 'He's a monster and he has to be stopped.'

"He's just a man," the Doctor said, as though he'd heard his son's thoughts.

DR took another look at him and realized his father was right. He was just a man. His hair was still standing straight up and covered in grease and oil, his nose was absurdly swollen, both eyes were black and blue, one of his teeth was hanging out of his jaw by a thread, and he was covered with cuts, bumps, and scratches. The cactus needles sticking out of his side and arm completed the picture. "With pleasure," he said, handing his father the weapon. "He's hardly a threat, now is he?"

"Go ahead twerp, underestimate me, I love it when people do that." The Master turned and grinned up at the Doctor. "This poor excuse for a Time Lord does it all the time, don't you Theta?"

The Doctor ignored him for a moment. "Sarah," he said quietly, "please take DR and stay with the children."

Sarah put her arm around DR and then looked at her husband. Their eyes met and she knew that now was not the time to disagree with him. "Who is this man," was all she said.

"This man," he said, "is the Master."

Sarah knew who the Master was from the stories the Doctor had told her about him. She stared down at the Master now in surprise and terror. This purely evil creature had her children in his power. "I thought you told me he was dead."

Before the Doctor could answer her, the Master smiled sweetly at Sarah Jane. "Like I said, I love it when people underestimate me. I sincerely hope you do too."

Sarah shivered and looked back at the Doctor. "I don't want to leave you alone with him. He's too dangerous."

"It's all right," he said, "I'll be along shortly."

Sarah saw a darkness in the Doctor's eyes that she had never seen before. It was just as frightening to her as the way the Master looked at her, but for an entirely different reason. "I think it would be best if I stayed here with you."

The Doctor closed his eyes and sighed. "Please, just go."

She sighed too, then nodded. "Come along DR, your father knows what he's doing." She glanced over her shoulder at him with love and concern in her eyes as she headed out of the room.

As they walked, DR kept looking back towards the garden. "Are you sure it's all right to leave Dad with that guy?"

She wasn't sure, but she certainly wasn't going to tell DR that. "You're father knows what he's doing. He's dealt with the Master numerous times in the past, and he always manages to defeat him."

DR stopped short. "If he always manages to defeat the Master, what's he doing here now?"

"It's a long story, but the gist of it is that your dad and the Master have a rather ... unusual relationship. They used to be best friends when they were growing up."

"Dad was friends with that guy? But he's ... he's barking mad. And dangerous." He started back towards the garden. "I know Dad likes to give people the benefit of the doubt, but ... he tried to kill Davy."

Sarah took him by the elbow and stopped him. "I know, but I'm sure if you talked to your father about it, he'd say that the Master wouldn't have killed Davy. Your father believes that there's some good still in him, that there's a part of the Master that's hurting and that's why he strikes out at people the way he does. He has killed people before, and I'm sure he will again, but he's different with your father, your dad knows how to get through to him."

"Well, he sure looked like he was going to kill David," DR said. "I was ..." He looked away from her, a perfect imitation of his father. "I was pretty scared."

Sarah Jane gave her son's shoulder a squeeze. "I'll let you in on a little secret," she smiled warmly at him. "I was terrified, and so was you're father. It's not as much fun being grown up and the one in charge as you thought it would be is it?"

DR shook his head slowly. "Everything seemed to be going just fine, and then it all fell apart and he had Davy and I didn't ..." he stopped, trying to keep from crying. "I didn't know what to do," he said, tears beginning to fall.

Sarah put her arms around DR and just held him while he cried. 'Poor dear,' thought Sarah Jane, her hearts going out to him. 'He's at that between age. Too old to act like a child and too young to keep from being one.' "It's alright DR, grown ups don't have all the answers either. I'm afraid I have to point out to you, though, that none of that would have happened if you had all stayed in the saferoom the way you should have."

DR nodded, still crying into her shoulder. "We tried, but it was more than four hours and you still weren't there and the cloister bell was still ringing, and ..." he trailed off, realizing that it was futile, and that that wasn't really what was bothering him anyway. "Mum, was I wrong to want to kill him?"

Sarah thought about the way she felt when she saw the Master's hands on Davy's throat. She stroked DR's head and hugged him closer to her. "Killing is never right if it can be avoided DR, but I completely understand why you felt that way. I think now that you are getting older, your dad and I need to sit down and have a long talk with you about a lot of things."

He thought about what she was saying, straightening up and wiping his face on his shirt. "Do you think... I could ... maybe ... you know..."

She finished his question for him. "Go back to being a fourteen year old boy?" She gave him a motherly smile as she rubbed his shoulder. "I think that's a wonderful idea. You know, being a big brother is a very important job too, and I think you're marvelous at it." She smiled even wider and put her arm around his shoulder again. "Come on, let's go check on the rest of the family, shall we?"

* * *

The Doctor watched DR and Sarah leave, then sat down heavily next to the Master. "Just us now," he said quietly.

"So what? I suppose you want me to be happy to see you, to give you a big hug or something don't you," the Master snapped. "Well it's not going to happen," he screamed loudly next to the Doctor's ear.


	8. Chapter 8

"You don't have to shout," the Doctor said. "I'm sitting right here. I'm not some random extra in the drama of our lives, you don't have to prove to me how dangerous you are."

His statement threw the Master, who sat quietly for a moment, thinking about everything he'd learned.

The Doctor welcomed the quiet. He needed time to think about what to do here. He was glad that DR hadn't killed the Master, and not just because he didn't want his son to be a murderer, justified or not. The truth was that history showed pretty clearly that killing the Master just made him angry. Eventually, he'd be back. Just look at now, after all. Of course, he realized, the Master might not have actually died in their last confrontation. He'd passed out before seeing Rassilon actually kill the Master; the energy of the Immortality Gate, or perhaps the energy of the link to Gallifrey, one of them had apparently repaired the damage caused by his interrupted resurrection.

But it didn't change the fact that nothing seemed to stop him, death included.

The Master interrupted his reverie. "How did you do it, Theta?"

"How did I do what?" the Doctor asked. "Have children? Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. Well, aside from the obvious."

"Where did **you** get a loom? They were so tightly controlled even **I** couldn't get near one."

The Doctor considered how much to tell him. He stared into the Master's face. Twelve regenerations, a stolen body or two, and who knew how many resurrections, and he could still see Koschei's face there, still see the little boys they once were. Part of him screamed at him to run, to get as far away from the Master as possible, but there was a little part of him that had to believe this wasn't all there was. "No loom, Kosch. Those children are a new kind of Time Lord. Not like us. Not like ... them."

"New? In what way? Why aren't they like us? What's so different about them?" The Master looked into the Doctor's face closely and then turned away, unable to look face to face with him for very long without feeling pain and regret, two emotions he couldn't deal with. In truth, there were very few feelings he could handle. The result was that he'd learn to regard those feelings as weaknesses in others and to take advantage of them at every opportunity presented to him.

The Doctor knew what was going through the Master's head, and didn't push him. "They're not afraid, and they don't feel the need to make other people afraid."

The Master stopped grinning in his usual mocking way. He paused to try and absorb what he had just heard. "I find that difficult to fathom Theta. In fact I can't. Tell me, what is a life without fear like?" The Doctor smiled. "I have no idea. But you can't argue with Wonder Man."

The Master snorted at the thought of the Doctor's four year old child thinking he could defeat him. "Actually, he reminded me quite a bit of you when we were younger. Absolutely no sense of the danger he was in."

"None whatsoever." But the Doctor hadn't covered one very important topic. "And speaking of David, you were going to strangle a four year old child. What is WRONG with you?"

The Master realized that he had let his guard down. How did Theta always seem to find that one spot in his hearts that he couldn't erase no matter how hard he tried? 'Damn him,' he thought. The moment was gone now, and the childhood bond between them was broken once more. "Oh come on," he sneered. "I was only threatening to strangle the little monster. After all, look what they did to me. I had to stop them somehow didn't I? You know, if you and that woman are going to raise those little demons, you should really teach them some manners." 

The Doctor realized sadly that the moment was gone, that the Master was once more the psychopath he had always been. "You were hardly setting a good example."

"All I did was lock you two up. They started everything else. Look at my hair! How am I ever going to get out all this grease and oil? And my tooth and my nose," he whined, but not very convincingly.

"You can always go into professional hockey," the Doctor said warily, waiting for the shoe to drop.

"Oh, you're very funny aren't you," the Master growled. "You make jokes about my suffering. You have actually become quite cynical, you know that? I really am quite worried about you. If you keep going like this, you're going to end up competing with me." He may have momentarily let his guard down, but he had still managed to take advantage of the Doctor's sentimental weakness towards him., and had worked his hands free while they were talking. Suddenly, he tackled the Doctor, grabbing at his laser screwdriver as he sprang at him. He smiled with satisfaction as he felt the cold metal in his hand. He quickly aimed it at the Doctor. "Release me, or I promise you you're going to lose your head, Theta."

The Doctor had known this moment would come; he couldn't kill the Master, and he couldn't hold him. But there was no reason for the Master's demand; he had the upper hand and didn't need to be released - at least, not physically. The Doctor could feel his hesitation; the Master didn't want to kill him, he just wanted a way out. "Swear to me," he said, "on the friendship we once had, that you'll leave my family alone."

"Do you mean to tell me that you're willing to turn me loose on an innocent universe just to save your family?" The Master laughed. "Maybe there's hope for you after all. Alright then, I'll spare your family, **for** **now**." He backed out of the room, still aiming the weapon at the Doctor. In seconds, he was out of sight.

The Doctor let out the breath he'd been holding and made his way over to one of the dynamic coupler outlets. Finding the Master's lockout, he pointed the sonic at it and finally, **finally**, the cloister bells stopped ringing. "Thank you," he told the TARDIS. "They were driving me mad."

Sarah and their children came running out of the safe room as soon as the bells stopped ringing. "What happened?" she asked as she put her arms around the Doctor's waist and her head on his shoulder.

"I'll tell you later," he told her quickly, as David threw his arms around one of his legs, and Elisabeth grabbed the other one. The rest of the children swarmed around him and started to tell him what had happened to them.

The Doctor bent down and picked David up to make sure he was alright as he listened to the tales of their adventures. He was pretty sure they were embellishing somewhat, but then he thought, 'why not?'

"I was the hero, Daddy," David finally said as they got to the end of the story. "I flashed my super ray at him so you could tie him up," he beamed proudly.

"Yes, you were the hero, and I'm very proud of you." He kissed him on the forehead, then looked at the other children. "I'm very proud of all of you." He winked at Sarah's disapproving look, mentally telling her that they could address the children's leaving the saferoom later.

Elisabeth tugged at his leg. "He was a very bad man, Daddy," she said in her best tattle voice. "He took you and Mummy away, he tried to choke Davy and twisted his arm, and he chased us too!"

Suddenly Sarah Jane, who was laughing now with relief, looked down to see Norman sitting next to her. She bent down, then reached over and stroked him under the chin. "Well done Norman, you're a hero too." Norman began to make a satisfied little gurgling sort of sound as he held his chin higher for Sarah.

"Hooray for Norman, " said Elisabeth. "Three cheers for Norman!"

Everyone began to cheer, finally safe and happy.

Sarah smiled warmly as she looked around at her amazing family. She knew that she and the Doctor would have to sit down with their children and have a long talk with them about all the dangers life could hold. But the Doctor was right. That could wait for now. This was a time for rejoicing and to appreciate being a family.

* * *

Two months later, the Doctor sat out on the porch watching the simulated Gallifreyan sunset, letting his mind wander. He hadn't seen hide nor hair of the Master, and a little part of him hoped that their encounter had had some kind of positive effect on him. There was no way to know, of course - well, no good way, anyway - but some part of him felt better somehow believing it. Sarah hadn't been thrilled when he'd explained that the Master had disappeared as mysteriously as he'd arrived, but she accepted his explanation that letting him go with a promise, no matter how dubious, was their best chance of having some peace, at least for now.

And gradually, the children had come down from their adventure and things had gone back to normal. Still, they'd spent the past two months letting the TARDIS recover in the vortex, and the Doctor knew that it was time to consider venturing back out into the universe. But when Sarah came out onto the porch and sat down next to him, he kept it to himself.

Sarah smiled at her husband as she leaned back against him and his arms enfolded her. "Lost in thought, my love?"

"Just a little." He kissed the top of her head. "I checked on the TARDIS. The last of the damage from our excavations has healed up."

"I'm so glad to hear that. I really felt terrible about having to do that to her." She ran her fingers over his arm. "It's more than that though, isn't it? You seemed so wistful just now."

He smiled. How well she knew him. "I was just thinking about ... oh, all sorts of things." He took a deep breath, dispelling his pensiveness. "Like the fact that I think it's time we ventured back out of the vortex."

She looked up and gave him a playful smile. "Are you absolutely sure about that?"

He turned her to face him. He suspected he knew the answer, but he asked anyway. "What do you mean?"

Her eyes were twinkling now, as she shrugged at him. "Oh, I don't know, only, maybe it's a little too soon to leave just yet."

Now his eyes were twinkling too. "Lucky number seven?"

She bit her lip and shook her head. "I'm afraid not."

The Doctor tried not to look as disappointed as he felt. "I don't understand. What is it, then?"

Sarah couldn't hold it in any longer. She started laughing with joy. "It's actually lucky numbers **seven** and **eight**! The TARDIS just confirmed it a few minutes before I came outside, we're having **twins**!"

It took a moment for the news to settle in. "Twins? As in ... two? At the same time?"

She nodded, grinning widely at him. "Twins as in two, but they'll be born one right after the other. Too soon to tell yet if it's boys, girls, or one of each."

"Eight!" he shouted, laughing raucously. "Let the Master swing by now!"

"Oh no thank you," laughed Sarah. "He better stay gone for a long time, and now that she's healed, first thing tomorrow, you're going to see to it that we can't get locked in **any** room of the TARDIS. Got that, Daddy?" she said as she poked at his chest playfully.

"Absolutely, Mummy," he said, then stood, swooped her up in his arms and carried her back into the house.


End file.
